The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Transportation of people and cargo has become increasingly important in our modern lives. In the United States, the typical modes of travel between cities include air, bus, personal automobile, and, to a somewhat more limited extent, conventional rail. Following World War II, the U.S., in contrast to Europe and Japan, which invested more heavily in rebuilding railways and other forms of mass transportation after the war, emphasis was directed to building airports and a national interstate highway system.
More recently, however, as energy costs continue to increase, the use of rail transportation has been increasing throughout the U.S. Nevertheless, the conventional forms of mass transportation are generally reliant on oil-based fuels. For example, buses are primarily powered by internal combustion engines that use gasoline or diesel, and conventional trains that cover long distances also operate through consumption of petroleum-based fuels. Moreover, these conventional forms of mass transportation are inherently limited in speed by their designs and fundamental methods operation.
As a result, attention is now being directed to energy-efficient forms of high-speed rail transportation, which is a term used to describe passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic (for example, 140 mph or higher), as an alternative to conventional modes of transportation.